


Splice Fight

by salamanderinspace



Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Action, Fetish Weaponry, Gen, Missing Scene, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-08
Updated: 2015-05-08
Packaged: 2018-03-29 14:33:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3899797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salamanderinspace/pseuds/salamanderinspace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Caine Wise would not "go quietly."</p><p>(Speculative "missing scene" / action scene right before Titus and Caine have their chat in the airlock.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Splice Fight

"Lord Titus will see you now."

Caine ducked as Famulus dropped the brass wrist-stock down the oubliette. It hit the bottom of the pit, echoing with a noisy "clang." 

"Am I supposed to put these on?" Caine asked.

"If you wish to rejoin our company." She watched him expectantly.

"And if I don't?"

"Given your history, my Lord Titus would be well within his rights to return you to the authorities." Caine shuddered. Reluctantly, he unfolded his legs. _Authorities_ meant _Deadland._ Where would that leave Jupiter? No matter what smug comments Famulus made about "dessert," Caine knew that Jupiter would never give in to Titus Abrasax. She would be in danger. Caine needed to get to her.

He picked up the cuffs and started to lock his wrists.

"Oi!" Famulus snipped. "Arms behind your back."

"How am I supposed to do that by myself?"

She sneered. "Wait there. **Don't** try anything." Caine heard the click of her heels on the titanium floor tile, followed by the soft tones from keys on the wall console. The oubliette opened. The platform began to elevate.

Caine's hearing was keen; it was one of his most enhanced attributes. He twitched an ear and caught the breath and subtle movements of his captors. There were three bots and two guards. Plus the deer splice--but Caine was betting she wouldn't resist a lycantant. The lift inside the oubliette whirred softly, pushing Caine toward the brightly lit hall. He crouched and tensed, steeling himself for attack. By the time he sprang forward, Caine's instincts were screaming for sudden, violent escape. He would not go quietly: a gift and curse of his genome engineering.

Caine went for the AI servitants first--their responses would be quickest. A cartwheel kick took the nearest one in the head, propelling her into her cohorts. Using the momentum of the flip, Caine spun his fist into the solar plexus of the nearest guard. The thing crumpled. Breathing in the adrenaline rush, Caine caught a glimpse of Famulus in the corner of his eye. She stood over by the console, frozen, mouth-agape. A weapon fired, but missed; then the machines were up, again, and Caine had to duck, evade, dodge. A steely hand sliced through the air, inches from his cheek. He grabbed, took hold, and was whipping one bot against the other two to send them into sparks.

The gut-punched guard was on him. Caine was fortunate; it was a legionnaire under that gas-mask face. Flesh and blood, not one of the mechanical guards that spit rapid-fire bullets from concealed auto-weapons. Caine could handle flesh and blood, but he didn't need to. He needed to disable the other guard, the machine. He ducked the human, flowing to the floor in a slide. Prone, he calculated the second guard's weak spot, aimed a kick and connected. _Hard_.

Joints buckled and circuits blew. The legionnaire fired a few rounds, missing Caine by inches. He stood, rounding quickly on his one remaining foe. Caine bared his teeth in a snarl; the human guard backed away slowly. "Drop your weapon and run," he growled. The guard seemed eager to comply--that's when something caught Caine round the neck.

He slammed to the ground, winded. Something burned and choked him simultaneously.

"Hot enough for you, Mr. Wise?" Famulus quipped, tugging the plasma whip. She twirled the little wand that powered the weapon, directing it to drag Caine across six or eight titanium tiles. His skin and clothing pulled against the starship floor, dragging with a terrible pealing sound. She smiled.

Caine fired his boots, trying to swing to to his feet. He struggled, but Famulus held him fast. She twisted a little dial on the handle to "anti-matter" setting. The whip blazed from solid white into a string of violet-colored explosions. 

"Shit! It burns, it burns!" Caine gasped.

"Hold still, Mr. Wise," Famulus purred. A flick of her wrist conducted the movements of the whip. It was not a material tether, but a technological one: dependent on motion-sensing and gesture recognition. Caine soon realized that Famulus was manipulating the energy-strand with almost no exertion. He was totally at her mercy.

She flipped him over. Caine felt the sharp heel of her shoe in his back while she applied the wrist-stock. Thankfully--he let out a breath--the whip retracted. A snarl escaped his lips as the crackling beam slid away from his flesh.

"Now now," Famulus chided. She lashed him once, lightly, across the upper back--just enough to sting. Then, she backed away. "Stand up."

He obeyed. Rising, he could see the hall was littered with the pieces of the four androids he'd disabled. The human guard hovered nervously. It took him a second to get eyes on Famulus; she was bent over, retrieving something from a cupboard under the console. She turned to Caine.

"Let me see your throat," she ordered. He glared. He could feel the burns forming everywhere the whip had touched.

Famulus sighed. She held up a spray bottle filled with Regenex. "Do you wish to scar? Lift your chin, please."

"What? Why would you…?"

"Your fight is over, Mr. Wise. You've betrayed my Lord and are now his prisoner." She flashed a one-sided smile and twitched her nose. "He likes his things kept in pristine condition." The deer splice swept her large brown eyes over Caine's body before shielding them--reflexively, perhaps--from a few quick sprays of chemical mist. Caine felt a cool, tingling sensation spread over his neck and back. New cells erased all signs of injury.

"A fresh guard will be here to escort us shortly," Famulus said. "You mustn't try to escape again, Mr. Wise. My Lord would be most displeased."

Caine bit back an angry retort. He contented himself to stare at the litter of broken androids, imagining Titus Abrasax's face on each and every one. When he was finally marched before his former employer, Caine's words just tumbled out. He heard his own voice, a little too guttural to sound apologetic: “You should have told me the truth about why you wanted her.”

**Author's Note:**

> I've been playing this game of "what if Titus was telling the truth when…"  
> What if Titus was telling the truth when he said that Caine Wise attacked a guard and destroyed a whole host of servants?
> 
> I don't have much practice writing action scenes. Let me know if it seems dull.


End file.
